possible explanations of the limited archaeological evidence. From 2007 to 2010 Andrew Gardner of UCL and Peter Guest of Cardiff University led joint summer research and training excavations on Priory Field, in the south-west section of the fortress alongside a geophys survey of the open ground south and west of the fortress. The excavations focussed on a large square building fronting onto Broadway, that appears to have had Legionary storage functions. Built early in the fortress's history, it collapsed or was demolished around 350, and the 2010 excavation unearthed thousands of finds including entire sets of Roman armour. A stone inscription was found that recorded that the building had been constructed by Flavius Rufus, possibly a first-generation Roman citizen who had risen to be Primus Pilus, the first ranked centurian of the II Augustan Legion. Cottages subsequently built on the same site were then occupied from 400 to 650 AD, revealing more of Caerleon's post-Legionary occupation. In 2011 Peter Guest led a follow-up investigation of the area ('the Southern Canabae') between the Amphitheatre and the river Usk. The earlier geophysical survey had identified substantial structures south of the amphitheatres, which were examined using test trenches. They confirmed the location of a port fronting (and in places eroded by) the River Usk - only the second Roman Port known in Britain, the other being London. They also found three huge public buildings arranged around vast central courtyards. The largest was by with a central courtyard bigger than the area of the amphitheatre. The dig was featured in an episode of Timeteam (series 19 episode 9, 23 March 2012). The 'southern canabae' area appears to have been abandoned much earlier than the fortress. By the end of the 2nd century buildings were just being used to dump rubbish, so whatever its early functions, they ceased to be relevant within 125 years of the troops first arriving. Analysis of the finds and excavations is still ongoing, but interim suggestions on the nature and purpose of these buildings indicate they could have been built in the very earliest phase of the fortress, although on a different alignment than the fortress walls. The test trenches leave most of the site unsampled, so the interpretation is necessarily uncertain. Amongst the possibilities considered, the buildings may have related to the administration of the legion or the area, and the courtyards might have been assembly yards for troops